The Answer
by Sir Gawaine
Summary: 'Watch your step or you might fall'. Lucas was always more of a romantic than John. The thirteenth in the Harry, Ruth, Kodaline series. Rated for language.


**A/N – Until ten days ago, this was the only song from the album that I had no ideas for. This came to me quite unexpectedly and boy, oh boy, is it different. If you guys don't like this one, don't feel bad – I won't mind!**

_**Watch your step or you might fall…**_

He will come.

John knows he will come.

Harry couldn't have their deaths on his conscience, the people in the train station. He might have been able to bear it once. He couldn't bear it now.

Lucas couldn't bear it either but Harry does not need to know that. Harry thinks that he knows him now, knows who he is and all the things he has done and all the things he _would_ do but Harry is wrong. He _knows_ John Bateman. John Bateman would kill those people at the station and he would have killed Ruth and he will kill Harry when he comes.

Harry has _forgotten_ Lucas North. John remembers him though, still feels something of his goodness inside him, like an echo. Lucas won't let those people die, any more than he would have killed Ruth. Lucas doesn't want him to kill Harry either but even he can see there is no other way. Lucas loved Maya as much as John did.

Lucas lived here once, in this tower block. John doesn't know which flat was his. He wishes he did, because he would have broken in and thrown out whoever was there and met Harry there, to show him what Lucas had once been. Instead, he paces on the roof and he waits.

Harry will come.

Even now, John knows that the others will be at the train station, quietly and calmly and desperately trying to defuse the bomb. It was a good idea, enough of a distraction to keep them away but enough of a threat that Harry would have to come. Even Lucas would have to admit it was a good idea. John can see them now; Beth standing as close as the bomb squad will let her stand, watching their every move; Dimitri pacing and calculating evacuation times and casualty numbers and the odds of their survival; that other bloke, Harry's errand boy, wondering how he got himself into this and wondering if he can get out. It will be priceless, their faces when they realise that it is a fake.

Their faces when they realise that all he wants is Harry Pearce.

_Their faces when they realise that Lucas is still calling the shots._

He checks his watch. Sixteen minutes have passed. Harry will be here soon.

Harry is not stupid.

He will know why he is coming.

John wonders what Harry is doing right now. He wonders if he is praying. He wonders if he is pleading. He wonders. He wonders.

He wonders if Harry kissed Ruth before he left.

No, _Lucas _wonders if Harry kissed Ruth before he left.

John doesn't give a shit. John would have killed her, as easily as he will kill Harry.

Lucas cares though. Lucas talked to her. Lucas told her she was stupid, that she should have accepted Harry's proposal and damn the consequences. Lucas knows that they love each other, love each other so much. Lucas has always known. He used to talk to Ros about it, about how sad it was to see them apart when they could be together.

Lucas always was more of a romantic than John.

John might not be a romantic but he knows he loved Maya, more than he had ever loved anything, including his own life. Harry killed Maya. It's his fault she is dead, no matter who fired the gun that did it. It's Harry's fault. John spared Ruth, because Lucas and Maya made him spare her. He spared her, for Harry, and then Harry killed Maya. By all rights, John should be waiting to kill Ruth now, to show Harry how it feels to have your heart stopped and never started again.

Lucas said no.

Lucas said it wasn't Ruth's fault, any more than it had been Maya's.

Lucas said they should just kill Harry.

John is waiting.

Harry will come.

Lucas will turn his back whilst John does it. John doesn't mind. He will do whatever needs to be done, to make the blood on his hands wash away. Vaughan made John do the bad things and now he is dead. John killed him. Harry made Lucas do things too, things Lucas didn't want to do and so he must die as well. John doesn't mind getting rid of him too. He'll do it for Lucas. He would do anything for Lucas. Lucas is a better man than he will ever be.

Tariq and Ruth will be on the Grid now, watching and waiting and watching. They will be tracking Harry's phone, John knows. They might be tracking Dimitri and Beth too, just for something, anything to do. Lucas couldn't imagine being a desk officer, forced to sit behind and unable to do anything to help, not when it came to it. But then Lucas had always needed to protect people. Once upon a time he would have sooner flung John off the top of this building than let him shoot Harry. Lucas had principles and they had tried to take them from him, in Russia and back at home.

Lucas had never let them take anything from him.

Except Maya. They had taken Maya.

John couldn't be angry at him though, not at Lucas. It wasn't his fault. None of it was his fault. Lucas was good and kind and brave and trusting and they had hurt him. They had hurt him so much. John is protecting him now, defending him against the people who would destroy him. He has already killed Vaughan. He is going to kill Harry and then they will leave, John and Lucas. They will go somewhere else, somewhere far away.

Lucas' only regret will be Ruth. John won't regret it but he knows Lucas will, that Lucas will regret the only person who will really mourn Harry Pearce. That's the kind of man Lucas is. Was…no, is. Lucas is still here. Lucas is still calling the shots.

If he wasn't, Ruth would already be dead.

Instead, Harry will come.

And John will have to make do with that.


End file.
